Australian CP Exhibition

The Australian Coloured Pencil Network has its annual online exhibition going on at the moment.

To view the entries (and vote for the best if you wish), go to :

http://www.colouredpencils.com.au/2012-voting/

The Complete Colored Pencil Book -Bernard Poulin

Bernard Poulin, [See Blogpost: 22 Feb. 2011], the well known Canadian portrait artist, and one of the three judges for this year's UKCPS Open Exhibition, has revised and updated his book "The Complete Colored Pencil Book", the front cover of which is illustrated on the right.

I can commend this book both for beginners, and the more experienced CP artist, as it is a mine of good information.  Buy it from Amazon [£13.50, last time I looked] using the link on the UKCPS website, and UKCPS will get a commission on the sale! Go to: www.ukcps.co.uk/ukcps/books.php

PS.  I think I am right in saying that Bernard will be at the exhibition Preview.

Maria Villoti - new blog listing- AMENDED

Welcome to new UKCPS member, Maria Villoti, from Greece. She has a blogspot, a link to which you will find in the members blogs section (righthand column - scroll down).
In my original post I intimated that Maria's blog page (written in Greek) needed translation into English.
My sincerest apologies to Maria - I hadn't noticed the translation gadget on the page which enables translation into many different languages. Maria has some lovely work on display - the site is well worth the visit!

Alan

Australian Coloured Pencils Network

Many of our viewers, and including some UKCPS members, are actually resident abroad. I have received a timely reminder of this fact via a note from a sister organisation, The Australian Coloured Pencils Network [ACPN] who have highlighted the call for entries for their next exhibition which is on the theme of 'colours of where I live'. The exhibition is only open to australian residents, and the the deadline for enties is 15 May 2011. However, even non-Aussie readers might wish to visit the ACPN website where there are some interesting video tutorials on basic CP techniques such as layering and burnishing. go to: www.colouredpencils.com.au for more information about the exhibition, and about the Network itself. Alan

Graham Brace - in the news

Graham Brace, UKCPS member and a well-known CP artist, is chuffed to bits at the moment, and all because he is appearing as one of ten coloured pencil artists featured in the latest edition of one of France's premier art magazines, 'Practiques des Arts'.

The March edition of the magazine is promoting coloured pencil as an art medium, and features 10 international CP artists, of which Graham is the only UK representative, within its monthly 'Portfolio' section.

One of the other UKCPS artists featured is Ann Kulberg, the well-known American artist, and authoress of some excellant books on colour pencil art.

A little bit of good news from Japan

As I write, the ongoing situation in Japan is terrible. Good to hear then, that UKCPS friend, and founder of the Coloured Pencil Society of Japan, Takako Ikuta, is safe and well in Osaka. The best wishes of UKCPS go to her, and to the people of Japan, at this time.

Bernard Aime Poulin - Awarded

Bernard Poulin, the noted Canadian artist and long time friend and supporter of UKCPS, has been granted international recognition by the award of the "Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Pleiade" (translated as: Knight of the Pleiade) from 21 March 2011, and in recognition of his remarkable contribution to Canada's cultural reputation.

The Order of the Pleiade was established in 1976 by the 'Parliamentary Assembly of Francophonie', an institution representing over 40 French-speaking countries and regions throughout the world. The award is made for prominant contributions to the Assembly's ideals of development, co-operation, and friendship.

Bernard, amongst other things, is a wonderful portrait artist, and I recommend a visit to his website; www.poulinstudios.com

Alan

Richard Klekociuk - Drawing Prize

Our international member, Richard Klekociuk, in Tasmania, Australia won the Drawing section of the 23rd Cradle Coast Rotary Art Exhibition at Ulverstone, on Tasmania’s Northwest Coast.

Natural Graffitiscape

60 x 40 cm. Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils on Canson pastel board

copyright Richard Klekociuk

As Richard said in his blog:

This year’s exhibition attracted 250 entries vying for 10 prizes featuring painting, drawing and mixed media.

I was fortunate to win the same section last year, and was thrilled to win it a second time.

In this drawing I ‘dragged’ the natural marks and colours of the rocks down, across the lower half of the composition. I like the balance of realism and abstraction.

You can see more of Richard's work on his recently updated gallery page at the UKCPS website and his own website.

Twitterings about coloured pencils

Did you know that there are now tweets about coloured pencils?  Yes, coloured pencils and Twitter are getting together!

Here's a List of the Twitter accounts of prominent coloured pencil organisations:

• UKCPS - http://twitter.com/UKCPS
• CPSA - http://twitter.com/CPSA_ORG
• Australian Coloured Pencils - http://twitter.com/AusCP
• Derwent - http://twitter.com/derwentpencils
• Cumberland Pencil Museum - http://twitter.com/pencilmuseum

UKCPS will "follow" other major coloured pencil organisations like those listed above and UKCPS members. 

All UKCPS members who "tweet" should feel free to:

• "follow" UKCPS on Twitter to alert us as to your Twitter account 
• suggest to us Twitter Accounts which are of interest to coloured pencil artists (leave a comment on this blog or send us a message on Twitter)
• use #UKCPS and #colouredpencils as appropriate!

Japanese coloured pencil artist wins top prize at CPSA 2010

The awardwinners for the 18th International Exhibition 2010 of the Colored Pencil Society of America are now on show on the CPSA website.

The top prize goes to Shinji Harada CPSA from Japan who won the CIPPY award and CPSA Best in Show prize of $2,000 with a still life work titled "Grapes in a Basket.

David Billingsley CPSA of Oregon came second with a view of a shopfront titled Seattle Ambience.  He won the $1,500 CPSA District Chapters Prize for Exceptional Achievement and achioeved signature status this year.  You can see a much better image of the work on David's page on the CPSA District Chapter 201 website (for Portland Oregon).  This is David's website.

A suite of prizes each valued at $1,000 were awarded to:

• Cynthia Morris CPSA (MO) for Look on the Bright Side
• Ester Roi CPSA (CA)for The Lightness of Being
• Pamela Burroughs (In) for Hannah's Bugbox
• Bonnie Auten CPSA (MI) for Labino's Tribute

Theer were a number of other prizes awarded due to the generosity of sponsors and District Chapters - details of which you can see on the Awards page.

This year there were no prizewinners from this side of the Atlantic.

This is the relevant blog on the CPSA blog Convention Recap - Top Award to Shinji Harada of Japan

Julie Douglas wins CPSA award

Jeff George has won the Best in Show at the CPSA 17th International exhibition for the second time - and two years running! His work Life and Death is in an unusual panoramic format ( 8.5” x 32”) but that's not its only surprise which I won't spoil by revealing on this blog. I'll just suggest you look very carefully as it's very difficult to see in the size posted on the exhibition gallery site. You'll get a better view of it on his website.

Interestingly I happen to know that this work got rejected last year - but only because only one work from each member can be successful in going forward to the final exhibition. Which means in 2007 he entered two works both of which have been judged best in show in successive years.

Click this link to see all the works which won awards at the exhibition

Top award for UKCPS member

UKCPS Member Julie Douglas won $1,000 and one of the top awards - the Staedtler Award for Exceptional Merit - for Boy on a Swing.

Boy on a Swing
Julie Douglas (Ireland)
coloured pencils 15.7 x 10.2"
copyright the artist

You can see a bigger version of her work on her website - click the image to see the big version.

Julie studied graphic design and illustration and worked for 12 years as a successful illustrator working with top advertising agencies and design groups. She has also illustrated books for publishers such as Penguin, MacMillan, Mitchell Beazley etc. She now teaches art in Ireland.

Prior to this award she has also won the Association of Illustrators Award on two occasions and her work on an American Express brochure won a New York Advertising award.

You can read more about Julie on her UKCPS gallery page - but I'll be asking her to reveal more in an interview for this blog in the near future.

Julie Douglas in 17th Annual CPSA International Exhibition

Congratulations to UKCPS member Julie Douglas who, for the second year in a row, has had one of her coloured pencil portraits accepted into the Annual International Exhibition of the Colored Pencil Society of America.

Last year Julie's picture, "Dappled Son", won a $500 Award for Outstanding Recognition at the 16th Exhibition in Seattle.

Boy on a Swing - by Julie Douglas
coloured pencil
copyright Julie Douglas

CPSA yesterday announced the successful entries - in Artists and Artwork Selected for the 17th Annual CPSA International Exhibition - 2009. The exhibition is being held in Atlanta Georgia between July 9 - August 29, 2009 at the Jacqueline C. Hudgens Center for the Arts.

If any other international UKCPS members have also been successful please let me know and I'll add your names into this post.

Richard Klekociuk - Glover Prize finalist

Wholemeal Landscape, Northern Tasmania
90 x 75cm framed (35" x 29.5"), Prismacolour pencils on Canson Pastel Board
copyright Richard Klekociuk

Richard Klekociuk is an international member of UKCPS who lives in the state of Tasmania in Australia. This year, Richard was one of 43 finalists in the Glover Prize - an art competition which has the biggest prize for landscape art in Australia.

The prestigious Glover Prize is the richest landscape prize in Australia. It is awarded each year for the best new (previously unexhibited and less than a year old) painting depicting the Tasmanian landscape. The winner receives $30,000 and a maquette of John Glover
John Glover Prize website

This is the artist's statement which Richard had to submit with his entry, Wholemeal Landscape, Northern Tasmania.

This drawing celebrates the strong bond between bread and the landscape.

Bread is made from grain (and water), which in this case, comes from the fertile areas of Northern Tasmania.

Bread as an object has strong landscape qualities. Its colour, structure and texture, is reminiscent of its agricultural origin and landscape surrounds.

Ancient Egyptians considered bread the “staff of life”.

In Christianity bread symbolises the body of Christ.

We consider bread and water to be the most basic necessities of our diet.

Despite modernisation, the pressures on farming and our environment, we are still able to grow our own food on rich, fertile land.

Tasmania is indeed a special place.

Glover Prize 2009 By artkleko

Richard is a retired art teacher whose artwork has always focused on the Australian landscape. At present he specialises in symbolist landscapes in coloured pencils. You can see more of his work - landscapes and symbolist landscapes - on his website and you can read more about him in his member gallery on the UKCPS website or in his curriculum vitae page on his own website.

Richard's solo exhibition in Launceston, Tasmania opens on April 4 titled "Bread". He intends to post each of 13 drawings (Baker's dozen) on his blog, one each day starting on April 5.

Note: For UK readers AUS$30,000 translates to around £14,250.

Links:

• The Glover Prize
  
• Richard's blog Artkleko’s Weblog (see side column re. member's blogs)
  
• Richard's website artleko - the artwork of Richard Klekociuk

CPSA Explore This! 5 Online Exhibition

The CPSA Explore This! 5 Exhibition and catalogue are now both online and available to view.

CPSA changed arrangements this year so that the exhibition is only online. This means that the exhibition will now run online all year until January 31 2010. It also means that the Society does not have the expense of an additional exhibition space to fund and the exhibitors do not have to fund the cost of carriage of framed art to and from the exhibition.

There are a number of pages on the CPSA website which relate to the The Explore This! exhibition. The navigation menu runs along the very bottom of the page on most pages. These are:

• The Explore This! 5 Exhibition Title/entry page
• The actual exhibition
• Details of the various awards and Award winners
• An exhibition catalogue of all the works in the list of artists. This provides details about the dimensions, the media and support used and the price of the work.
  
• More information About the exhibition
• and information About the Juror - Gwen Chanzit

There are some innovations in presentation of the exhibition online which are worth noting.

• Each award winner now gets a mini profile and a link to their website. It's very nice to be able to put a face to a name, learn a bit more about the artist and to able to see more of their work.
• The online catalogue is really great for anybody viewing online. Information about dimensions is particularly valuable as a digital image can so easily misrepresent size and this information has not previously been provided.
  
• People wishing to purchase an artwork can contact the artist via the Exhibition Director. This means that all exhibitors have an opportunity to exhibit their work on a very reputable website and sell their art online for the next year.
  

Patsy Lindamood UKCPS in PaintAmerica Top100

Tern Talk by Patsy Lindamood
18 x 24 color pencil & water color pencil
with water soluble wax pastel (Caran d’Ache Neocolor II) on Ampersand Pastelbord
copyright Patsy Lindamood

A coloured pencil work "Tern Talk" by Patsy Lindamood PSA, UKCPS, AFC has been selected as one of the Top100 winners in the 2008 PaintAmerica competition. This is is an annual juried competition and exhibition designed to illustrate American life. Her work will now be seen as part on an annual on-line (to be posted soon) and touring exhibition during 2009.

You can see images of the exhibition prizewinners in PaintAmerica Annnounces 2008 Top100 Winners! on the PaintAmerica blog

Patsy lives in Gainesville Florida and is one of UKCPS's American members. She became a signature member last year when she had her work exhibited at the Annual International UKCPS exhibition for the third time in three years. Prior to this she won the Faber Castell Award in 2007 for Wood Stork Watch.

For those who like the details “Tern Talk” is an 18 x 24 color pencil & water color pencil with water soluble wax pastel (Caran d’Ache Neocolor II) on Ampersand Pastelbord. "Tern Talk" was also accepted into the 16th Annual Colored Pencil Society of America International Exhibition held in Seattle, WA, July 2 - September 29, 2008.

You can see more of Patsy's artwork on her website Wild Things Artwork. On her home page she has a number of pieces where she talks about where and how she got her reference photographs and comments on her observations about the animals or birds that she photographed. This is what she had to say about Tern Talk.....

"Tern Talk" is based on a group of terns I photographed extensively at the beach at Sebastian Inlet, FL, over the Thanksgiving holiday 2007. I lay on the beach for some half an hour watching these birds interact with other. A select few of these birds engaged in a kind of squawking behavior, always directed at one individual bird. For me, it looked like "she" was giving "him" a piece of her mind, saying "if you would only. . . and if you had just . . ." while he just gazed out over the ocean as if he didn't hear a word of it!

A second piece by Patsy, “Glacier Blues” (pastel), was also accepted into the competition.

Glacier Blues by Patsy Lindamood

UKCPS members interested in this competition will want to note that artists from anywhere in the world may enter, but that their paintings must depict any of the 50 states.

Entries should also be representative art that depicts the beauty and grandeur of American nature, landscape, seascape, cityscape, etc. Paintings may also represent lifestyle scenes from America.

Note:
UKCPS members whose coloured pencil artwork is accepted into national art competitions or other significant art competitions/exhibitions are invited to contact the UKCPS Blogmaster and/or the Talking Point Editor with details of their news plus a file copy of the relevant image. See the side column for contact details.

Who's in the "Explore This" exhibition?

As previously announced, as from 2009, CPSA's Explore This! exhibition is to be annual and online only with all entries being digital images. This meant that the exhibition became a much more affordable proposition to enter for anybody previously concerned about the cost of shipping work over to the USA and back.

The Exhibition Artwork will go online and the Award Winners will be announced on February 1, 2009.

In the meantime you can check out whether you can recognise any names of UKCPS members in the listing of accepted entries which was published this week.

The unique feature of Explore This! is that all entries must have some element which breaks the rules of the CPSA International Exhibition

Finally, CPSA have also announced that the 2010 CPSA Convention will be in Santa Clara County in California - just south of San Francisco. Further details are available on the CPSA blog (see below).

Links:

• CPSA Explore This! prospectus
• CPSA list of accepted entries
• Colored Pencil Society of America News - Announcements for Explore This! 5 and 2010 Convention/Exhibition

The Japan Colored Pencil Society

Late last year, UKCPS received news from Takako Ikuta in Japan. Some of you may recall Bob Ebdon writing about her in his sign-off post back in September 2008.

....finally - back to our very first exhibition. This took place at Patchings Farm in 2001, and our very first AGM was held there on a Saturday. The following day I got a call from Patchings - a lady had turned up for the AGM, she had come a long way, and would I like to meet her. It turned out she had come a VERY long way - it was Takako Ikuta, from Japan. I was delighted to meet her, brought her home for tea, and have kept in touch ever since. I was very excited to get an e-mail from her just this week to announce that she has formed the Japan Colored Pencil Society. Now look what we done!

• In September 2008, Takako founded the Japan Colored Pencil Society. It has 22 members.
  
• The society now has a website - the address is http://j-cps.org.
• JCPS also held its first exhibition in 2008 and exhibited the works of all those who applied. You can see a gallery of the first exhibition on the website and you can see photographs of them hung here.
  
• JCPS are also planning to hold a second exhibition in November 2009.
  

It's very interesting to note that some of the artwork is using coloured pencil at the same time as adopting the subject matter and compositional style of traditional Japanese artwork of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

About Takako Ikuta

Takako Ikuta UKCPS CPSA is a coloured pencil artist and author who has exhibited with both UKCPS and CPSA, was awarded signature status with both societies in 2004 and 2005 respectively and has won prizes and commendations at the annual exhibitions of both societies.

Which I think I'm right in saying makes her unique in the world!